Relationship of students' perceptions of faculty to scholastic achievement: are popular instructors better educators?

Student evaluation of the faculty is a standard practice in most medical schools. Implied in these evaluations is the motion that popular instructors (ie, those considered outstanding by the students) are better educators, whose teaching translates into higher scores for their students on examinations. We tested this hypothesis by comparing students' evaluations of the faculty with levels of academic achievement in a second-year pathology course. Objective measures of academic achievement included scores on final comprehensive examinations, final course grade, and performance on the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE). During the 4 years studied (1990 to 1995), students belonging to groups with the highest ratings for their instruction performed no better than those with the poorest ratings. There was no correlation between students' perceptions of quality in teaching and their academic achievement. Our results indicate that students' evaluations of the faculty are subjective and do not correlate with objective results used in the assessment of student knowledge. Popular instructors are not necessarily better educators.